LWN: Comments on "A note from the openSUSE board"

A note from the openSUSE board

spongy — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 07:09:22 +0000

obviously Michael Loeffler. Now the reason for removal?

anyone/

A note from the openSUSE board

dberkholz — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:19:37 +0000

Thank you for standing up to this kind of behavior. For anyone interested, check out the multiple talks online on this topic including the poisonous people talk and my own "Assholes are killing your project."

A note from the openSUSE board

Wol — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:45:53 +0000

How can someone tell if it was a subjective (could be something that was bad in some cultures and not in others) or a real transgression (direct crossing of a major guideline)?

Subjective or not, if you ignore people in authority who are telling you to "watch your step", then you shouldn't be surprised.

Eastern cultures tend to exaggerate respect for the boss. Western cultures, even if the boss is the worst kind of PHB, you don't push him too far.

As I read the story, this person basically pushed the people in authority to breaking point, ignoring veiled and not-so-veiled warnings. Culture be damned, that's gross stupidity in ANY culture.

Cheers,
Wol

A note from the openSUSE board

nlucas — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:39:55 +0000

They should at least made a resume of the charges, not necessarily with the full facts, but the real points that led to this, like pointing the paragraphs of the "Guiding Principles" that were in dispute.

I can agree with the non-disclosure decision in relation with the real persons involved, but (if I were an OpenSuse member) I would like to know if the decision was correct in my point of view. If it wasn't then I could decide to not vote for them in the next election.

How can someone tell if it was a subjective (could be something that was bad in some cultures and not in others) or a real transgression (direct crossing of a major guideline)?

I'm not implying nothing in here. I'm sure it was a good decision to reach this point, but they are acting like a military tribunal in relation to transparency.

A note from the openSUSE board

vblum — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:28:41 +0000

Hm. There has been some discussion about the OpenSUSE Foundation business recently, and one could wonder whether there was some disagreement related to real issues after all. ... says one who has no further information on the subject whatsoever, i.e., I am completely in the dark as to what this means. Yet, as a user of the distribution, of course I am interested to know that all this has nothing to do with corporate politics (which I strongly assume it does not, why would anyone agree to be silent on such a point).

A note from the openSUSE board

nettings — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 13:49:03 +0000

i agree, there's not much for outsiders to glean from this announcement. but that's a very good sign in a way: no voyeur entertainment value, but people directly or indirectly involved get necessary information.

dragging outsiders into such a case isn't much help, as it's bound to start a free-for-all with loads of bigot righteousness and stupid trolling.
much better to actually have a fundamental public discussion later, that deals with underlying governance issues and doesn't have to circle around this particular case, whatever it was.

in this light, i don't regret having read an article that made absolutely no sense to me :)

A note from the openSUSE board

coriordan — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:16:50 +0000

I'm still thinking about this...

Where's the need to publish info about the deed?

It would be interesting to know, but entertainment value doesn't make it a democratic obligation :-)

A note from the openSUSE board

cmorgan — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:37:11 +0000

You mean libertarian fundamentalists? If so, why would a non-governmenmental organization be of much concern to a libertarian? You can opt out and go elsewhere without punishment etc so whats the issue.

A note from the openSUSE board

smurf — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:59:20 +0000

The announcement raises quite a few more hackles than that.

While I support their decision to not name names, the board's decision to not even disclose what the hell the "perpetrator" actually _did_ does make no sense whatsoever.

A note from the openSUSE board

slothrop — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:29:11 +0000

earth-scattering information...

A note from the openSUSE board

whitemice — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:27:59 +0000

Good work. What are guiding principles if there is no consequence for their being flagrantly ignored. Clearly this is withing the boards authority and I applaud them for making a decision that will certainly raise the hackles of some Libteration Fundamentalists.

A note from the openSUSE board

JoeBuck — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:06:02 +0000

The egcs (now GCC) steering committee banned one person from the forums and project, more than ten years ago, for making repeated threats, including claims that he knew where the release manager's house was. Fortunately he accepted the ban and the police did not have to be called.

(In case anyone remembers his name, please don't repeat it, because I hope that the guy cleaned up his life and no longer goes around threatening people -- it was a long time ago).